Plants and systems for testing whether a hollow body encasing gases or liquids (usually under pressure) is leaktight often operate according to the pressure maintaining principle. Here, the hollow body which is to be tested is surrounded with a vacuum. If the vacuum remains constant over the test period, the hollow body is considered leaktight. However, if the vacuum decreases and the pressure increases beyond a pre-determined fixed value, the hollow body is considered to be leaky.
Containers or cartridges for medical fluids or dosing aerosols for inhalers are named as examples of test subjects from the field of medicine. For example, reference is made to documents EP 0 775 076 B1, WO 00/49988, WO 97/39831, and WO 00/23037. All of the cartridges or containers described therein must be tested for their leaktightness. The methods used to this end include systems employing the hereinbefore-mentioned pressure-maintaining principle. The disclosures of such publications are herein incorporated by reference.
In order to guarantee the continuity of the test process, it is necessary to test the system itself via which the leaktightness of the hollow body is checked. An examination is carried out as to whether the measured pressure increase due to leakage is accurately measured and whether the correct conclusions are drawn from the measured values. It is therefore necessary to subject the leaktightness testing system itself to an examination from time to time.
In accordance with this, it is the object of the present invention to specify an examination system for such a leaktightness testing system.